Wireless Festival


Wireless Festival is an annual rap and hip-hop music festival that takes place in London, England, which is owned and managed by Live Nation. Debuting in 2005, the festival's earlier years primarily featured rock and pop artists; since the 2010s, the focus has shifted largely towards hip-hop and other genres; for example, urban contemporary music.
From its 2005 inception until 2008, the festival was sponsored by telecommunications company O2, and was called the O2 Wireless Festival. From 2009 to 2012, the main sponsor was Barclaycard, and the festival was renamed to Barclaycard Wireless Festival. In 2013, the sponsor changed to Yahoo!, thus renaming it to Yahoo! Wireless. From 2015 to 2020, the festival's official partners were the carbonated soft drinks Pepsi and Pepsi Max. Delivery company Gopuff were the official sponsor in 2021 and remained as the sponsor in the 2023 edition of the festival. Sponsorship again changed in 2024, to be partnered with PepsiCo's Rockstar Energy.
The capacity of the 2023 event was just shy of 50,000 people. Adjacent festivals were held in Leeds in 2006 and 2007, as well as Birmingham in 2014. In 2017, Live Nation also established Wireless Germany in Frankfurt, as well as Wireless Middle East in Abu Dhabi.

History

2005

The first festival took place in June 2005 and was in Hyde Park only. Tickets were £35 a day. Some of the acts on the line-up were :
In 2006, the festival played in both Hyde Park and Harewood House. Tickets were £37.51 per day.
The Hyde Park festival ran from 21 to 25 June and on the bill were:
The Harewood House festival ran from 24 to 25 June and tickets were £32.50 for the first day and £37.50 for the second. It featured:
Tickets for both venues went on sale on 16 March 2007 and the festival took place between 14 and 17 June in Hyde Park, and 15–17 June at Harewood House. Tickets were £40 for one day, £75 for two, £105 for three or £135 for four days.
The acts for both Hyde Park and Harewood House were:
The acts which performed the extra date in Hyde Park were:
For the first time, the Leeds festival offered camping facilities at the festival. Campers were allowed to stay on Lord Harewood's land for £25 for as many festival days as they wished. There were 3 stages this year, and the O2 Blueroom where only O2 customers were allowed to enter.

2008

The 2008 O2 Wireless Festival spanned 4 days in Hyde Park, and was the last to carry the O2 sponsorship. An attempt to hold a parallel festival in Leeds similar to the Reading and Leeds Festivals arrangement was unsuccessful, and instead a variety of club nights featuring billed artists were held. Tickets were £45 per day.
The line-up was as follows:
The 2009 festival was sponsored by Barclaycard and was cut from four to two days in Hyde Park. Tickets were £45 for one day or £80 for both. The line-up was as follows:
The 2010 Wireless Festival was increased to three days and took place from 2 July to 4 July 2010. Tickets were £47.50 for one day, £85 for two and £110 for three days. The line-up was as follows:
The Sunday date sold out in record time, three weeks before the festival.

2011

The 2011 Wireless Festival was held from Friday 1 July to Sunday 3 July 2011. Tickets were £48.50 or £49.50 for one day, £92 for two and £130 for three days. The Black Eyed Peas headlined the Friday, The Chemical Brothers on the Saturday, and Pulp reformed after ten years to play the Sunday and other festivals in 2011. The Black Eyed Peas date had sold out by the end of June, while tickets for the other two days remained on sale until the festival.

2012

The 2012 Wireless Festival was held from Friday, 6 July to Sunday, 8 July. Tickets went on general sale on 18 November 2011, priced at £49.50 and £52.50, plus booking fee. All tickets for the Rihanna day sold out by the end of March, a new record for the festival.
The acts which played were:

2013

The 2013 event was moved to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford after Live Nation pulled out of the tender for Hyde Park due to curfew issues. The festival was held from Friday, 12 July to Sunday, 14 July 2013, and tickets were priced at £57.50 for day tickets and £110 for two days, plus booking fees. The event was sponsored by Yahoo!.
The line-up for the festival was:

2014

In February 2014 it was confirmed that Wireless Festival 2014 would be held at Finsbury Park, London and Perry Park, Birmingham. The event was held over the weekend of 4–6 July 2014, on three stages. London day tickets were priced at £71.50 while Birmingham day tickets were priced at £68.75. Weekend tickets for London went on sale at £210 while Birmingham weekend tickets were set at £172. On 3 July, the day before the first day of the festival, it was widely reported that Drake had pulled out due to illness,. This was confirmed on the festival's social media sites and organisers announced that Kanye West would play instead of Drake in London, and Rudimental would headline the Saturday in Birmingham with a special extended set featuring very special guests. The organisers also offered those attending on Saturday in Birmingham £20 of "Wireless Credit" which was redeemable against any concessions, merchandise stands and funfair attractions at the event.
London
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